1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cooling system for cooling a liquid coolant in an immersible motor vehicle, particularly to a cooling system for a floatable or submersible motor vehicle having a liquid-cooled engine, wherein a radiator is accommodated in a chamber, which is flown through by air during land travel and admits water when the vehicle is submerged or floating.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A known cooling system of that kind has been disclosed in Published German Application No. 1,804,607. In that known system, the chamber which accommodates the radiator is disposed above the engine, and the radiator and fan are disposed in said chamber one beside the other under a grating. Openings which are adapted to be closed by valve flaps are provided on opposite sides of the chamber and communicate with the engine-transmission compartment. During land travel, the two valve flaps are open and the fan sucks part of the air directly via a short circuit and causes another part of the air to flow through one opening of the chamber and around the engine-transmission assembly and through the other opening. When the vehicle is floating or submerged and the two valve flaps are closed so that liquid is not admitted to the engine-transmission compartment and only the chamber above said compartment is flooded. That known cooling system has various disadvantages. As the vehicle is immersed into the water, the chamber which accommodates the radiator and the fan is entirely filled with water so that the overall weight of the vehicle is considerably increased and its ability to float is reduced to some extent. If the entire assembly is not centered in the vehicle but is laterally offset, the vehicle may become overbalanced toward one side so that it assumes an oblique position. It will also be unfavorable to expose the fan to the entering water. Special measures must be adopted to ensure that the water will be drained out of the chamber when the vehicle has surfaced. It will obviously impossible to cool the radiator for the engine with both air and water when only part of the pan is immersed.